Religion and Spirituality linked to heart-rate variability among cancer survivors

Faith and the use of prayer and
religion to manage stress may provide health benefits for cancer survivors,
University of California researchers reported March 1 at the American
Psychosomatic Society's annual meeting in Denver, CO.

" Our findings suggest that spirituality may be protective
of physical health,"
said Carissa Low, UCLA psychology
graduate student and lead author of the study.

Researchers at UCLA and the University of California, San Francisco,
studied 23 women who had been diagnosed with breast cancer approximately
seven years earlier. Based on participants' resting heart rate, investigators
calculated an index of heart-rate variability ? beat-to-beat changes
in heart rate. In healthy people, heart rate adjusts to varying levels
of demand. Higher heart-rate variability is indicative of flexibility
in the body's ability to respond efficiently to stress and is considered
to be a marker of good health; a more inflexible, monotonous heart rate
is associated with cardiovascular disease, depression and anxiety, and
mortality.

The researchers were interested in the coping strategies associated
with healthy variation in heart rate. Participants completed self-report
measures of coping style, depression, psychological well-being and spiritual
well-being prior to a physical examination.

" We found that faith and spirituality were the key factors," Low
said. " The women with a strong sense of faith had
significantly more variable heart rates than those who reported less
spiritual well-being.
In addition, the coping style most strongly associated with heart-rate
variability was religious coping ? the use of prayer or meditation
to cope with stress and find comfort."

The researchers asked patients how they generally cope with stressful
events in their daily lives; respondents were given a range of options,
including acceptance, humor, denial, distraction, and use of prayer,
meditation and faith. None of the other coping styles examined were related
to heart-rate variability.

" These findings are consistent with an emerging literature
on the beneficial impact of faith and spirituality on health," Low
said.

The research was funded by the Positive Psychology Network.

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